Arms, second lineup lead SOL American/Continental comeback

PHILADELPHIA >> Runs in the SOL Continental conference were few and far between this season for a lot of reasons.
Those reasons were the conference’s collection of outstanding pitching arms. Every game seemed to pit an ace against an ace. So, with the SOL American/Continental Carpenter Cup reeling after four innings Wednesday, it was the Continental’s arms, coupled with the team’s second lineup, that got things settled.

Pitchers Dan Klepchick (CB South), Aaron Gulibon (Souderton), Brian Edgington (Hatboro-Horsham) and Colin Kennedy (Hatboro-Horsham) combined for five shutout innings while the bats of Alex Tappen and Thomas Philipps carried American/Continental to a thrilling 7-6 comeback over Tri-Cape in the first round at the Phillies Urban Youth Academy in FDR Park.

“We’re a good league, we’ve got good talent and our pitching this year in our league was very dominant,” Kennedy, a junior committed to LaSalle, said. “If you compare us as a staff and our conference as pitchers, I believe we can compete with anyone.”

“It’s the best in the state, I believe,” Edgington, also a junior, said.

The first lineup for SOL American/Continental didn’t look like a collection of the best talent in the conferences. As a whole, the team had seven errors, six of them coming in the first four innings and leading to five unearned runs off Andrew Mayhew (Pennridge) and Thylar Summarrell (Souderton).

As American/Continental coach Ed Wall, also Upper Dublin’s head coach said, it was uncharacteristic of those players. Wall said it was probably that group having to come in and start a one-and-done tournament game leading to some nerves that led to some of the mistakes.

Still, it was a marvel to the veteran Cardinals boss that his group won a seven error game on just five hits.
“We had to realize we helped them out quite a bit, you’re not supposed to win games when you have seven errors,” Wall said. “Our pitchers did a great job of getting things under control and keeping us in the game. Then, we started to get hot.”

That all started in the sixth inning when Tappen, a Wissahickon junior third baseman who is pledged to the University of Virginia, stepped to the plate with the bags loaded. After three seasons of worrying when he saw Tappen coming up, Wall was able to relax a bit knowing Tappen was in control, would have a smart at-bat and most importantly, knew what was coming.

Expected to deliver, Tappen did just that, poking a ball just inside the right field line for a two-run double, sparking a four-run inning when CB East catcher Colin Sheehan had an RBI groundout and CB East outfielder Cameron Komonchak hit a sac fly to plate Tappen.

“Coming into the game as the second lineup, I had to stay mentally locked-in the entire game even when I wasn’t playing because you never know if you’re going to come into a big situation,” Tappen said. “In those situations and especially down (in the count) 0-2, you just have to protect. I saw the pitches, fought back to 2-2 where I knew I was going to get a good pitch and was fortunate enough to poke one down the line there.”

Tappen’s big hit followed two shutdown innings by Klepchick and preceded one by Gulibon. While the American/Continental didn’t score in the seventh, Edgington had the eighth on lock, rolling up three easy outs around an infield hit.

Edgington said it was a bit of a help being the second-to-last guy out of the pen and getting a chance to see Tri-Cape’s second wave of hitters. Kennedy said it’s also an internal desire to go out and get after whoever’s at the plate and it’s a battle within the staff to see who can throw the best.

Kennedy also touted every arm in the conference, calling the conference’s arms “unbelievable.”

“It’s like friendly competition, you always want to do better than the guy who went before you,” Edgington said. “You always want to top them.”

“The way I think of it is you always do better than the guy before you and don’t let the dude next up to you do better than you,” Kennedy said. “You have to compete and that’s how it’s always going to go.”

Wall gave a lot of credit to Tri-Cape’s early pitching but as his guys worked the bullpen, they started to get better swings. North Penn second baseman Nate O’Donnell led off the eighth with a double, nearly the same place where Tappen had put one, to kick off the decisive frame.

Up stepped Philipps, the CB West first baseman and on a 2-1 count, he crushed the pitch over the 325-foot fence in left to tie the game at 6-6. Wall, in the third base box, pumped his fist at the tie game and how well Philipps had hit it.

“It was an inside, I tried to get my foot down early,” Philipps said. “It’s one of the more incredible experiences of my baseball career for sure. I had an idea where it was going, it was pretty awesome.

“We knew we had to start swinging because our bats were dead early. We had to put the ball in play and that’s what we did and made a comeback out of it.”

Tappen followed and at 3-1, he belted a fastball to the base off the 400-foot fence in center for a double. Sheehan followed with a perfect sac bunt and Tappen then came in, with Wall’s exuberant prompting on a wild pitch to Komonchak to take the lead.

“In a 3-1 count, high school pitchers, 80 to 90 percent of the time they’re going to give you a pitch right down the middle so I was sitting on that,” Tappen said. “I put a good swing on it then we had a clutch bunt that allowed me to advance over and score on that wild pitch on the next play.”

Given the lead, Kennedy was up for it, first using an excellent pick-off move to erase the leadoff runner at first after he had reached on an error. Then a groundball to Justin Horn at short was the second out and after a two-out single, Kennedy got a fly ball to right to seal the comeback.

The American/Continental plays Lehigh Valley at 2pm Friday for a chance to play in the semifinals at Citizens’ Bank Park. This team has the arms to do it, and they’re motivated.

“It’s competitive nature,” Tappen said. “You come out here wanting to win. Pretty sure everyone has the goal of getting over there and playing in the third round.”